Roy McGiffin

Francis Roy "Minnie" McGiffin, last name sometimes spelt McGiffen, (March 2, 1890 – August 30, 1918) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player. He played for the Toronto Blueshirts of the Canadian National Hockey Association (NHA) from 1912 to 1915. He was a member of the 1914 Stanley Cup championship Blueshirts team.

Roy McGiffin
Born (1890-03-02)March 2, 1890
Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Died August 30, 1918(1918-08-30) (aged 28)
Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.
Height 5 ft 8 in (173 cm)
Weight 160 lb (73 kg; 11 st 6 lb)
Position Left wing
Shot Left
Played for Toronto Blueshirts
Playing career 1907–1915

Playing career

Roy McGiffin played amateur hockey from age 15 with the Coldwater Hockey Club, moving from there to Toronto Simcoe, Toronto Amateur Athletic Club and back to Toronto Simcoe for the 1909–10 season. He played the 1911–12 season for Cleveland Athletic Club, before turning professional with the Toronto Blueshirts in 1912–13. He played three seasons with the Blueshirts before retiring after the 1914–15 season.

In the 1914 Stanley Cup challenge of Victoria Aristocrats against the Blueshirts, McGiffin scored the game-winning goal of game two.[1] That season, he led the league in penalty fines of $116.[2]

In a February 17, 1915 regular-season game against the Ottawa Senators, McGiffin became involved in a fight with Art Ross that ended with both players being arrested by Toronto police.[3] After spending the night in jail, both players were fined $1. McGiffin lost a coin toss with Ross and paid both fines.[4] The referee of the match Cooper Smeaton wanted McGiffin barred from the league, denouncing him as a rough player.[5]

After the 1914–15 season, he quit hockey for business and moved to Dinuba, California.[6] He had lived there previously for a year from 1910 to 1911 after his junior hockey days. In June 1917 he married Lillian Schroeder of San Francisco.[7]

McGiffin served in the U.S. Army Air Service during World War I, and was an instructor of aerobatics. On August 30, 1918, Flight-Lieutenant McGiffin was killed in an airplane crash about a mile and a half northeast of Call Field in Wichita Falls, Texas.[8] He was looping at an altitude of 2,000 feet when his plane crashed.[9]

Playing style

Roy McGiffin was known as a rough player, somewhat in the mold of a modern-day enforcer, and he collected a total amount of 300 penalty minutes over 51 games during his three year long NHA career. But Jack Marshall, a teammate of McGiffin on the Toronto Blueshirts and a subsequent Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, thought McGiffin's reputation as a violent player was exaggerated and claimed that most of his violent outbursts were for intimidation purposes only:

"He's a good little fellow, and wouldn't hurt a fly. When he swings at a player's head, he always knows that the player is well out of range. He does it for effect. Not a player in the N.H.A. was injured to any extent by McGiffen last year, while "Minnie" lost more teeth and bore more scars than any other player in the league."

– Jack Marshall on Roy McGiffin.[10]

It seemed not everyone agreed on Marshall's assertion of McGiffin as a "good little fellow." According to Montreal Gazette sports journalist Dink Carroll, longtime NHL referee Mike Rodden, when asked about McGiffin, claimed "[McGiffin] wasn't a bad man. He was a mad man."[11]

Career statistics
McGiffin, third from left in the back row, with the 1913–14 Toronto Blueshirts.
    Regular season   Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1912–13 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 15 7 1 8 83 — — — — —
1913–14 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 18 6 5 11 86 2 0 0 0 11
1914* Toronto Blueshirts St-Cup — — — — — 3 2 0 2 25
1914–15 Toronto Blueshirts NHA 18 4 0 4 131 – – – – –
NHA totals 51 17 6 23 300 2 0 0 0 11

* Stanley Cup Champion
Source: Society for International Hockey Research

References

Notes
  1. Coleman(1966), pg. 264
  2. "Ottawa Senators - 1914 History". Archived from the original on 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2008-06-03.
  3. "The Police Arrest McGiffin and Ross". The Globe. 1915-02-18. p. 9.
  4. "M'Giffen Paid Fines for Both". The Globe. 1915-02-19. p. 10.
  5. "Wants M'Giffen Barred". The Globe. 1915-02-19. p. 10.
  6. "Wouldn't Play for Ottawa for $1,000 a week". The Toronto Star. 1915-12-20. p. 19.
  7. "'Minnie' McGiffin Is Killed in Machine". The Toronto World. 1918-08-31. p. 8.
  8. McGiffin Francis Roy, 1918 US Army Signal Corps/ US Army Air Service Accident Reports
  9. "'Minnie' McGiffin Is Killed in Machine". The Toronto World. 1918-08-31. p. 8.
  10. "Minnie McGiffen, Golf Champion", Winnipeg Tribune. Dec. 19, 1914. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  11. "Playing the Field" – "The Era of 60-minute Men" Carroll, Dink. Montreal Gazette. March 11, 1952 (pg. 16). Retrieved 2021-05-09.

Bibliography
  • Coleman, Charles (1966). The Trail of the Stanley Cup, vol.1, 1893-1926 inc. National Hockey League.
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